Fanene Peter Maivia – Son of Samoa

I’m working on a new book in the Pasifika Heroes series – Tokelau Heroes. Today my students performed a play about Lata, a legendary Tokelau hero. It was a show for children and was performed at Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau.

I spent this week visiting schools in Wellington to encourage young people to read. My main message is that books are so powerful they can change your life, as they did for people like Dr Ben Carson and Steven Adams. Whatever your talent, reading helps it grow bigger. There’s a lot of passionate librarians and…

“Thank you to former MC student & Author Extraordinare David Riley for the gift of boxes of new books to families in South Auckland so they can start, or add to their own kāinga pukapuka – home libraries. The books are culturally specific e.g. a box of Maori books for a Maori family, Samoan books…

I just found out that Black Magic has been shortlisted in the 2025 NZ Children’s Book Awards. That’s cool man! Not because I’m after awards but because it means more children will read this story which is an important story for Kiwi kids to know. The book is illustrated by Munro Te Whata and we’re…

Celebrating 10 newly published South Auckland writers. I wanted to be a writer when I was 10 years old at Viscount School in Māngere but never met a writer so I didn’t think someone like me could do that. That’s why I love these projects with young champions, helping them see they can do this…

This is Taitama on the right. He’s a student at Nayland Primary School and he’s an author. He told me he’s inspired by my journey, to publish his art and writing too! His book is about two moa that fall in love. “Inspire” means breathe life into and Taitama really inspired me today. Thank you…